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Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Slice of Life: Writing like a 9 year old...

Slicers. I'm at the table tonight with my 9 year old. He's been given a writing assignment. I'm watching him write, and I'm learning he writes like me.

Talk about it a bit.

Get up and see what the dog is doing.

Change the music.

Talk to the family.

Write a little.

I thought for sure I would write an earth shattering slice while he did his assignment. But I was stuck. And as I'm watching him write, I thought, "I need to try this assignment." It's good for me to put myself in his shoes.

The directions: Roll a dice to determine the setting, character, and plot. Write freely for 15 minutes. (I'm already wide-eyed because I'm looking at this outline below. What?!?!?!)

Setting: A sail boat at noon.
Character: A talking gorilla
Plot: Going to a country Western Concert.

A Midwestern Kerfluffle
In the floods of the summer before I turned 40, I took my sail boat at noon down to the local taco stand to hang out with my friends.

(Side bar: my family is with me. Country Western music is already blaring through my kitchen. We also have sing alongs when we write.)

As I slid up to the bar, I noted that a Gorilla was behind the bar with a western hat ready to take my order.

I ordered my spicy shrimp tacos (crispy, not fried) and a beer-because hey, It's 5 O'clock Somewhere. (Now we're discussing how we can see Jimmy Buffet this summer.)

"I happen to have these three tickets to the Jimmy Buffet/Eagles concert. 200 dollars total."

"Oh My!" I exclaimed. "I can take my sister and my Auntie with me!"

"I aim to please," shared the Gorilla.

I scarfed down my tacos and beer and ran to call my sister. We broke into a refrain of "Margaritaville." There was peace on earth. The teacher, and the sister, and the Auntie lived happily ever after, even though the concert wasn't completely Country-Western. Because hey. Even though we live in Iowa, we don't always want to do that.